Concealed Carry – What The #@(& Are You Thinking?

As readers of concealednation.org and/or activeresponsetraining.net may know, Concealed Nation has a regular feature they call “Dig the Rig”. Generally if there’s something glaringly bad, Greg over at Active Response Training covers it. Since he hasn’t yet touched this one, I thought I would.

THE INITIAL EQUIPMENT

On July 18, 2017 Concealed Nation posted the carry arrangement of an individual named “Philip”. It can be found here. On the surface, it didn’t seem so bad. But you know how some people seem ok until they open their mouths? This was sort of ok until you read his explanation. Well that is, if you just glanced at the picture. If you started to scrutinize the picture, then you might find yourself thinking “wtf?” as you perform your best imitation of the RCA dog. “Philip” says he graduated the police academy but isn’t employed in law enforcement. Consider that as you read on. After that, the next thought that comes to mind is that there is no damn way this is being carrying concealed.

First up, his pistol around all of this is based. The pistol itself is a sound option in the form of a Sig P229. The Sig P229 is, by all accounts, and excellent gun.

And then there’s the holster, a BLACKHAWK! Serpa holster. I’m not going to go into the issues with that holster in this post. The issues are documented and can be found without much problem. Suffice to say, if you spend Sig money on a gun, one should get a good holster.

The knife is listed as a Benchmade N680. Nothing wrong with Benchmade’s knives however, I do believe he has confused the blade steel with the model number. He also says it has a “Goat’s Head blade”. I suspect he means “Sheep’s Foot” as that is how Benchmade describes it. Additionally he lists a Leatherman tool, again, I see no issue with the hardware itself.

I still don’t understand the red Sharpie. I figure a decent ball point pen or pencil does the job.

“Philip” also list pepper spray which isn’t a bad idea as many bad situations don’t warrant the use of lethal force.

He actually carries two spare magazines. Good for him. Both magazines are loaded with an ok hollow point.

AND IT GOES SIDEWAYS…

The first true wtf moment comes when you spot the handcuffs and then read his explanation:

During the time that DO NOT NEED THEM; when seen by non carriers (or potential perpetrators), they send an unconscious (and open) message to those that see you that you are not a threat to them or the law abiding general public without have to say a single word of explanation.

Now, I don’t know about the rest of you, but if I see someone that is carrying cuffs and doesn’t have any sort of LE or security identifier on them (say an actual badge for LE), this person is immediately suspect to me. I tend to view them as possibly not that mentally stable.

Also, application of handcuffs requires making physical contact with the potential threat. Something that generally isn’t advisable for someone that’s a concealed carrier. Say nothing of possibly opening oneself up to other legal implications.

OTHER ISSUES

“Philip” also states that he alternates ammunition in his gun by starting with a Glaser “fragmenting” round in the chamber. He follows that with two more Glasers and then alternates with rounds of “Winchester Critical Defense” Ammunition. Let me pause for a moment here and point out that Hornady makes Critical Defense, not Winchester and if you can’t keep that part straight, I start to get skeptical. That aside, he follows repeats this order about 3 times. After that, he states that the last five rounds in the magazine are Critical Defense.

Now, his reasoning is that “most gunfights occur at distances of 10 to 5 feet away. At those distances, the Glaser is very effective with proper shot placement while significantly reducing the risks associated with a shoot-thru or a complete miss altogether”. First, he has chosen ammunition with a relatively spotty history of effectiveness and essentially betting that if he ever has an encounter, it will be within the realm of averages rather than a statistical outlier. It is interesting what Tom Givens briefly mentions in his recent article in American Handgunner.

Let’s now look at his choice of flashlight. I’m not sure exactly which Stinger he is carrying but it’s likely about 8 inches in length. Eight. Inches. Of. Flashlight. WTF?

STILL MORE WTF

Now, I’m not sure if “Philip” carries a phone or not though it would be odd if he didn’t. Many phones have a record function for voice memos and such. So why on earth carry a micro cassette recorder? Oh look, he can reload it! Anyway, it’s one more thing that is odd.

Conspicuously absent is any sort of first aid equipment. No tourniquet, no Band-Aids, no nothing.

HOW I WOULD FIX IT

Ditch the recorder.

Find a smaller light. Streamlight has several options.

Find a more suitable holster. In the unlikely even I was opting for open carry, I’d take a serious look at one of Safariland’s security holsters. For concealed carry, there are tons of options.

Ditch the hand cuffs. No good need for them.

Add a tourniquet, some Celox Gauze, and a small first aid kit.

Add a ball point pen.

So there you have my assessment of this train wreck. I’m sure I left plenty out. This is just what jumped out at me. Do you have any thoughts? Feel free to leave them in the comments.

13 Replies to “Concealed Carry – What The #@(& Are You Thinking?”

Oh boy howdy! “No good need” is right! Carrying (or worse yet use) of handcuffs by non-sworn folks is plain ol BAD.
And then there’s the Serpa. I’m not gonna use all caps for Noell’s stuff unless I really wanna get sarcastic. Suffice to say I was an early user of his gear who became disaffected. Unless someone is required to use one; the Serpa alone is an indication that I’m gonna have disagreements with that person. To be fair, I did try a Serpa shortly after they came out and found it unsatisfactory.

Oh I was making sure I had their name “correct”. My first and only experience was a test holster someone I know had received. He asked us to rip it off his belt. Wasn’t even a challenge. From then on they were no-go in our books.

I’ve been there when officers asked someone, who had been handcuffed by security, if they would like to press charges.

As well they should; that is the officers should ask (it’s their sworn duty to uphold the law) and those illegally detained should press those charges. That’s the only way this stuff gets fixed in a civil society.

Disagree about the voice recorder. My smartphone (Samsung Galaxy) is usually carried in a cargo pocket. Difficult to access quickly if I need the memo feature. Even if carried elsewhere, my “memo” feature can record less than a minute before shutting off. My older model Sony digital voice recorder, OTOH, has a 2GB internal memory chip, fits in my shirt pocket, and runs all day every day on a rechargeable AAA battery. If the day was uneventful, the recording is wiped. If need be, the audio file is downloaded to my PC and cataloged.

My “Ball Point Pen” is a tactical pen that includes a hardened striker for breaking windows if need be, as well as various sharp points for injuring a bad guy until I can get to my Gerber folding knife or Fox pepper spray.

The Streamlight is a regular old-style Stinger that comes with the incandescent bulb, but he “upgraded” it with a kit that I had fail on me four times before the company that made it (not Streamlight) finally told me there was no warranty and quit replacing them.

With a fairly gentle drop, the LED would literally come off the board. Four different boards. The halogen or whatever bulbs that came with that model stood up to drops better than that crap LED conversion.

“Sig 229 old style with the all steel frame in 9mm.”

Uhhh, what? The only way I know to get steel-framed P22X pistols is to get the stainless version, otherwise that frame is aluminum. And come to think of it, I’m not sure there’s ever been a 229 with a stainless frame.

BTW, you were really generous with your evaluation of the Glaser’s performance. I just call ’em junk.